Yankee Stadium can be an extremely inhospitable place to play. The fans can be demanding, unforgiving and downright rude.
And that’s just for the home team.
So it was perfectly understandable that when J.A. Happ took the mound on Sunday for the first time in Yankee pinstripes, his heart was pumping a little harder than usual despite his 12 years of experience and 248 major-league starts.
After all, Tino Martinez and Jason Giambi had been welcomed with boos, and earlier this year, Giancarlo Stanton, the reigning winner of the National League Most Valuable Player Award, had been subjected to what seems to be a Bronx rite of passage.